Shaped granules of starch or of a mixture of starch and other materials have been used as raw materials for prepared foods including as a rice substitute and as other food items. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,628,966 and 3,620,762 disclosed methods of preparing enriched artificial rice containing nutrients such as amino acids, vitamins and minerals by semi-gelatinizing those mixtures with water and granulating. However, these methods have severe drawbacks and disadvantages in the granulating process when starch is used as the only raw material. As a results, binder materials such as gum or gluten must be added to the mixture in order to make the granulating process possible. The prior art methods also teach a process of steaming a mixture of nutrient, binder and starch before the granulating process in order to semi-gellatinize the starch by the binder. However, such steaming process is only effective to gelatinize the surface layer of the granules and the resulting gelatinization is not homogenous. One other drawback of the prior art methods is that the steaming step before granulating causes undesirable adhesion of the granules to the granulating rolls producing granules of poor shape.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of shaping gummy substance from starch that does not have the drawbacks and shortcomings of the prior art methods.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of shaping gummy substance from a mixture that contains only starch and water.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of shaping gummy substance from a mixture of starch and water for preparing a food item.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method of shaping gummy substance from a mixture of starch and water by using a set of granulating rolls.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method of shaping gummy substance from a mixture of starch and water for preparing a rice substitute.
It is another further object of the present invention to provide a method of shaping gummy substance from a mixture of starch and water with a set of granulating rolls having their surface temperatures kept at or below 60.degree. C.
It is still another further object of the present invention to provide a method of shaping gummy substance from a mixture of starch and water with a set of granulating rolls and then steaming and drying the granules.
It is yet another further object of the present invention to provide a method of shaping gummy substance from a mixture of starch and water such that the granules can be suitably used as a special low protein diet.
It is yet another further object of the present invention to provide a method of shaping gummy substance from a mixture of starch and water into granules that are suitable for Sake brewing.